


3am

by castielsass



Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 11:31:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7506598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/castielsass/pseuds/castielsass





	3am

The chilled air of the night clung tight to Tyler’s skin, misted the fine hairs over his arms. When he crossed his arms his breath warmed the goosebumped skin, hot breath fanned tiny hairs. Tyler sat, the hard edge of the concrete step digging into his thighs until he lifted his knees to rest his elbows on. 

With his hands laid over his own shoulders and tucked like that he almost felt whole. He didn’t know what time it was, it felt like three am but to him it often did. The faint sound of plastic wheels on road echoed. There were no stars here, light pollution had laid them to rest, but his outline was softly illuminated by the lamp left on in his brother’s room. It was this faint guiding light that led Josh to his side. Abruptly, the faint aura of wholeness shattered and Tyler hugged his knees tighter to chase the feeling. Josh’s hand patted his back, a soft, friendly touch that made him twitch. Always touching, always seeking, hands. 

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me today,” Tyler whispered. He felt Josh shrug more than he saw it, Josh’s camo jacket slipping up and down the sleeve of Tyler’s hoodie. Josh lay his skateboard to his left, let Tyler’s arm press against his right. 

“It’s ok,” Josh said. He started to say something, but the brief pause of breath was enough for Tyler to break, spill words forth in the minuscule space, where they would be swept away by Josh’s reply; like branches in a river, the water would carry them swiftly before they could hurt anyone. Josh listened, Josh nodded, Josh told him to stop it and shut up when Tyler got too in his head. It was the last one that may have been the hardest, Josh tugging on the parachute string when Tyler wouldn’t. Tyler inhaled, slow and steady, the cold air and warm affection swirling deep in his chest. He nodded. Josh was right, he needed out of his head. Tyler let his knees drop, stretching his feet to the patch of grass in front of them. His thighs hurting but mostly numb from the chilled concrete. 

“Let’s go,” Josh said. “I’ll teach you how to skateboard.”

Josh took him to a half-abandoned neighbourhood that seemed fully abandoned at this time of night, and he put him on the skateboard like he was moving a doll. Josh pressed his feet into positions and Tyler let him. The first time he fell, Josh laughed and Tyler grinned at him because of how the sound echoed through the forest of empty homes. Tyler picked himself up and tucked his hands to his chest while he laughed, even as bruises bloomed on his knees. The second time he fell, the board flipped from under him and he almost planted his right foot down on the edge, almost broke an ankle but Josh’s hands moved swiftly from his waist to his back, scooping him up and taking his whole weight. So that when Tyler planted his feet, they were on solid ground. 

 

When Tyler slid open the door to the shower, his naked body surprised him in the foggy bathroom mirror. He leaned over, scrubbed at the steam and faint splatters of dried toothpaste from his brothers, until he resolved in the reflection. Dark, tall, bruised elbows and knees. He ran a hand over his dark shorn hair. 

 

Josh picked at a hole in the couch, a tiny one that was surely missed by Tyler’s mother since it wasn’t patched. The swift feet of siblings had probably broken through the canvas after being battered for so long. Words felt like glass in his throat, so Josh let his voice stay low and soft, carrying only to Tyler, sitting on the floor in front of him, words drifting down like rain to his head. 

“I was vegetarian, for a while when I was a little younger,” Josh said and he couldn’t remember the things he had said before. “And when I ate, I never really understood why vegetarians ever ate any meat substitutes, y’know? It didn’t make sense to me, how someone would torture themselves with something they can’t have. It couldn’t be good, why not just...have something else? Something that wasn’t a bad copy of what you really wanted. Something...totally different.”

"Alright, I get the point,” Tyler said. “A little heavy-handed, but-”

“Shut up!” Josh interjected, laughing. “‘I’m not a writer. But, you get me, right?”  
“I think so,” Tyler said. His fingers, always working working working picked at the carpet. The hole in the couch by Josh’s thigh suddenly made sense. “I think, it’s like. It think you’re calling me meat. Which, I should maybe be offended by.”

“It was a compliment.” 

“And the girls you’ve dated before - the...blonde, small, bouncy, happy girls-”

“Are like tofu.” Josh finished.  
“That’s probably offensive,” Tyler mused. “In the case of your last girlfriend, offensive to tofu.”

Josh told Tyler to shut up for the second time in as many minutes and Tyler grinned at him, shreds of carpet fibres stuck to his pulling fingers and Josh rolled his thumb over the hole in the sofa.


End file.
